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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Dire Lemming" data-source="post: 3856610" data-attributes="member: 21457">Just how common are exiles?  Any in recent memory besides the one three years ago that I'm adding in my story?  Has one ever been forgiven?The reason I'm asking is that I'm writing this:Enko is a very compassionate young man.  A little too compassionate, some might say.  Three years ago another young man named Ceryan was sentenced to exile for angering the spirits of the hunt, the boy, for indeed, he was no older than Enko had been at that time was an orphan who’s parents had both died in a hunt.  Enko felt great sadness, as Ceryan cried his protests, that the spirits had abandoned his mother and father, so why should he not do the same to them.  Still the decision had been made, since he would not repent and make amends, he must be banished.  In the end, the boy went quietly, though there were tears in his eyes.  He ran into the forest as Enko watched him, feeling almost as bad.Enko decided to follow the boy, though he knew that he should not help an exile, and that his parents did not want him to enter the forest, he could not help himself.  As he passed the first tree he found to his surprise that the place was not anywhere near as dark and foreboding as his parents had made it out to be when he was a child.  Perhaps that had merely been an exaggeration of their part in order to scare him away.  All of this was because of what had happened when he was three.  He sighed and started looking carefully around for signs of the other boy.  He did not to be so thorough.  “What are you doing here?” called an angry voice to his left.  He turned to see the red eyes boy from before sitting hunched against the trunk of a nearby tree.  “I…” Enko started to reply, but trailed off as no words came to him.  “I know you… Blackfrond boy.  You’re a spirit talker, your family has lots of furs and your mom is Niada of the Guiding Star.  What are you doing here?”  “I’m… Enko.”  Enko stuttered “And I’m trash!  They’ve thrown me to the wolves!”  The boy shouted in return, his voice breaking.  “I don’t… no.  Why would you not respect the spirits?  You knew what would happen.”  The boy glared at him “Spirits!?  What spirits!?  The spirits my mother and father honored every day without fail until the day they were killed!?  The spirits let them die!”  “No!” Enko shouted.  “They did not abandon them!”  “Then why are they dead!?”  “They-….” Enko once again trailed off.  The boy put his head down on his knees and started weeping quietly.  It was clear that he did not even intend to try to survive.  He had given up on everything.  “The spirits… they cannot always protect everyone.  And that beast was a monster.  Perhaps that beast’s spirit was stronger than the one protecting your parents…  I…  That monster is to blame for their deaths, but they have been avenged…  You should be at peace.”  The young man looked up, his eyes still wet.  “M- My name is Ceryan …”  Enko nodded, “Wait here, I’m going to get you some food and a branch you can make into a spear.”  “I can-“ Ceryan shouted, but Enko had already left.  He returned quickly, hauling a sturdy tree branch with a freshly sharpened end and holding his shirt so that it formed a basket full of berries and mushrooms.  “These are the safe kind.  You can tell because of the black rings on the trunk and the slits on the top.  Don’t eat any other fungus.  The only berries you have to watch out for are the bright red ones that shine in the darkness, and the green ones.  The green ones aren’t ripe yet.  Therefore the moon spirit shall protect you by showing you the bad berries.  The pine spirit shall protect you from wolves, and the spirits of these berries and fungus shall protect you from starvation.”  Ceryan stared up at him.  “Why are you…”  now it was his turn to trail off.  “No one should die like this… but for the safety of everyone, those that do not respect the spirits, and incur their wrath, must be exiled.”  Ceryan did not reply, he simply sat there with a thoughtful expression on his face.  “Don’t go too far into the woods, make a fire.  I’ll try to come back tomorrow if I can.”  Enko said, turning to leave.  He knew that Ceryan already would have done those things.  Everyone else seemed afraid of the forest.  He didn’t know why, the only really dangerous things in here were wolves, and they usually avoided humans.  He carefully returned to town, and somehow made it back without being spotted, or so he thought.  As he came around a building he nearly slammed into a girl who it seemed had been waiting for him, for she immediately reached out and grabbed him, saying in a quiet but urgent voice.  “You, you’re Enko Blackfrond!  You followed him didn’t you?”  “I…” Enko said, a feeling of familiarity coming over him.  “I saw you!  Did you find him?  Is he alright?” She continued without even giving him a chance to answer.  “Eh… yeah, he’s fine… just, unwell in spirit.  He blamed the spirits for his parent’s deaths, so he abandoned them… but I think he might understand now.  Um, who are you?”  “I am… Eleinya…”  The girl said, now that he wasn’t worried that she was going to pound on him or expose what he’d done he got a chance to look at her.  She was dressed in mostly leather clothes, so perhaps she was a hunter.  Like Ceryan’s parents…  She had long brown hair that was tied back out of her eyes in a horse tail fashion, and she had a pretty, freckled face with dark brown eyes that bore same red marks around them that meant she had been crying recently.  Eleinya continued speaking.  “You… said he understood… does that mean he can come back?”  She asked him hopefully.  “I don’t know…  It’s up to the elders… but… I’ll try to convince them.  Maybe because I am an apprentice spirit talker they will listen, but… well I’m only an apprentice.”  As her face started to fall he quickly repeated, “But I’ll try!”</blockquote>

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